Shared database for social services

In 2 or 3 years, people seeking help need to give details to only one agency

By Janice Tai, The Straits Times, 12 Oct 2012

THE social service sector will set up a common database in two or three years, which will save those seeking help the trouble of repeating information when they are referred to different agencies.

When the project is completed, they need to share their personal details with only one agency, and the information will be stored in a database that the relevant parties, such as Family Service Centres (FSCs) or Community Development Councils (CDCs), can access.

Announcing the plan yesterday, Acting Minister for Community Development, Youth and Sports Chan Chun Sing likened it to the health-care sector’s national electronic medical record system, which allows hospitals and polyclinics to share information on patients.

A similar system for the social service sector will help the various agencies and voluntary welfare organisations (VWOs) render help more efficiently, he said at the annual National Council of Social Service Members Conference at Holiday Inn Atrium. It would also mean better coordination among the agencies because they would be less likely to provide the same services to the client and can focus on other unmet needs, he added.

Said Mr Chan: “People expect to be helped by any agency they approach and they do not want to repeat their story, even if the help involves multiple agencies. This means the first agency must work with the others at the back end.”

Currently, there is already a shared ComCare database where basic information on the kind of help given to low-income families through the FSCs and CDCs is stored. But the new system will capture more detailed information.

Mr Chan, however, assured the audience of some 400 social service practitioners and partners that the privacy and confidentiality of their clients’ data will be protected.

“We will take our time to work through some of the issues as to who have access to the data and who can share those data,” he told reporters at the event. “We must also ask the clients whether they are comfortable sharing this information across agencies.”

In a wide-ranging speech which outlined the key challenges facing the sector, Mr Chan said services must be better integrated as cases are likely to become more complex because of factors like changing demographics and rising public expectations.

Social workers, for instance, should be exposed to working in different agencies so they can learn to manage different types of cases.

Difficulty in raising funds, he said, is another challenge that VWOs continue to face. He said his ministry is looking into funding the capital costs of VWOs – which may cover building or equipment costs – so that they can focus on meeting their clients’ needs instead of grappling with fund-raising.

VWOs interviewed by The Straits Times welcome the setting-up of a central database.

Said Ms Lim Hwee Er, an occupational therapist at the Alzheimer’s Disease Association of Singapore: “The information in such a database will allow us to anticipate emerging needs, for example, those of the non-nuclear families.”

However, many pointed out that there must be robust measures to protect such information which is often shared in confidence by the clients.

One way is to allow different groups to access different parts of the database, suggested Mr Vincent Ng, executive director at Ang Mo Kio FSC. “Have multiple sub-databases so that those who work with specific groups like the disabled or the elderly can access the relevant information that they need as we don’t need all the information,” he said.

Ms Corinna Lim, executive director of the Association of Women for Action and Research (Aware), agreed. She said that Aware is in discussions with other groups which have a similar focus on women to set up a database for domestic violence cases.

“If we have a national database, we need to examine how we can provide different levels of access to different agencies and the authorities,” she said.